A general quiz by any other name......

will still be a general quiz. It can never be a Books Quiz. What we had last weekend at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan were two Open General quizzes, one which went curiously went with the name of Books Quiz. Samanth Subrmanian's quiz was a pseudo books quiz. Mind you I am not criticising the standard of the questions, but the questions themselves. The prelims was literarly non-literary. Samanth had very smartly explained at the beginning that any written word would be treated as literature, which is fine. But somehow the choice of questions made me feel that the questions normally asked had just been repackaged with a different name. And needless to say we had the usual finalists on stage, making this another session of good quizzing, but not so engaging for the non-finalists. BTW for the record I am pissed off with seeing the same goshti's at all the quiz finals. I have come up with some rules to plainly make it more even a contest and more entertaining. Will write about it at some point.

A real life hero

Day and Night Tests? What the $#%&

"I wish people would leave Test cricket alone and keep their tinkering to the limited-overs game. What they need to do, if they think they aren't getting enough crowds, is to play less of the damn thing so that when a Test series comes around, people will want to see it instead of saying, 'Just another Test'."...Michael Holding as quoted by Sambit Bal, Courtesy Cricinfo.


Attaboy Mikey. Guess it takes a fast bowler to "bang" in some sense when administrators decide to tamper with the fairer version of the game.

Chomsky and Co clarify

I received this from the Initative India google group, to which I subscribe.

We are taken aback by a widespread reaction to a statement we made with the best of intentions, imploring a restoration of unity among the left forces in India –a reaction that seems to assume that such an appeal to overcome divisions among the left could only amount to supporting a very specific section of the CPM in West Bengal. Our statement did not lend support to the CPM's actions in Nandigram or its recent economic policies in West Bengal, nor was that our intention. On the contrary, we asserted, in solidarity with its Left critics both inside and outside the party, that we found them tragically wrong. Our hope was that Left critics would view their task as one of putting pressure on the CPM in West Bengal to correct and improve its policies and its habits of governance, rather than dismiss it wholesale as an unredeemable party. We felt that we could hope for such a thing, of such a return to the laudable traditions of a party that once brought extensive land reforms to the state of West Bengal and that had kept communal tensions in abeyance for decades in that state. This, rather than any exculpation of its various recent policies and actions, is what we intended by our hopes for 'unity' among the left forces.


We realize now that it is perhaps not possible to expect the Left critics of the CPM to overcome the deep disappointment, indeed hostility, they have come to feel towards it, unless the CPM itself takes some initiative against that sense of disappointment. We hope that the CPM in West Bengal will show the largeness of mind to take such an initiative by restoring the morale as well as the welfare of the dispossessed people of Nandigram through the humane governance of their region, so that the left forces can then unite and focus on the more fundamental issues that confront the Left as a whole, in particular focus on the task of providing with just and imaginative measures an alternative to neo-liberal capitalism that has caused so much suffering to the poor and working people in India.


Signed

Michael Albert, Tariq Ali, Akeel Bilgrami, Victoria Brittain, Noam Chomsky, Charles Derber, Stephen Shalom

Why read Financial Times?

Naomi Klein explains why she reads Financial Times . Chomsky had something similar to say about Wall Street Journal.

Despondence galore...

Ok I will break my silence. I am shocked at CPI(M)'s take and handling of the events happening in Nandigram. I am a bit of a communist but am not a Communist. I believe that concentration of power, either with state or corporate entities would almost always lead to sickening results and loss of freedom. I also believe that left thought should work towards a heirarchy less structure with a more equitable distribution of resources. That one of the more sensible groups in the Indian political spectrum is involved in this sickening display of state power to subdue and subjugate the very people, whom it is supposed to represent(more so than in the nonleft states) makes me despondent. That the masses will lose faith in Left thought and what it represents would probably be one of the most disheartening outcome of the whole event. What made me feel worse was the lukewarm response of that most respected and fearless intellectual Noam Chomsky. Even acknowledging the various forces out to damage the Left (of which there are more than plenty) and the global importance of the need to preserve the Left experiment here and elsewhere, the situation still demanded a stronger admonishment of the State machinery from the noted anarchist. Chomsky Sir, I am disappointed, to say the least.

Having said this, the protests of the people and the intelligensia of Bengal is heartening and surely a healthy sign, for where there is no honest dissent, there can be no Left. A case in point, the absolute lack of spine and dissent culture in the land of one of the earliest dissenter, Nakkeeran,be it the ecologically disastrous and economically unviable Sethusamudram (the only protest is on religious grounds supported by a party which believes that displacing people without adequate and proper compensation, submerging forests and destroying natural heritage is the only way towards progress, even while the religion they claim to protect actually condemns such practices very severely.So much for being religious) or the Khusboo issue or the Dinakaran murders.

Yuvraj, Tirupathi and Chaos theory

Yet another example of chaos theory at work...India wins 20-20 nonsense(20-20 can be equated to Yuvan's music. You listen to the Dad and on that confidence you listen to the son and you soon wonder what made you assume that something might have rubbed on to the son from the Dad) and you have BCCI and government pouring money on our cricketers. In the bygone ages of amateurs and quasi professionals, when cricket was nowhere near as lucrative as it is these days, when cricketers were not omnipresent, it made sense to gift land, money or a job to these achievers, thereby adding some security to their life. But how sensible is it to pour lakhs on the overpaid millionaire cricketers of the current age who in addition to having lucrative contracts with BCCI also earn a fortune through advertisements. This even when the average Ranji trophy and league cricketers gets paid pittance. But then we make traditions of these things don't we. We would only add money into the super rich coffers of Tirupathi as offerings while allowing the classic temples in and around Tanjavaur, Chidambaram and Kumbakonam to lie in ruins. If even in the realm of gods some are MORE equal than others, what can the poor Ranj Trophy cricketer expect.

Coming to the reference of Chaos theory at work, these days modellers use Chaos theory to model and explain why some movies become super hits, why some books become ultra popular and so on. And what is generally found is, that there is a positive feedback at work. So if there is some initial advantage, that advantage tends to increase subsequently and in the absence of external intervention there is a runaway. People try to apply this to ecological and economic networks. For eg I remember one talk, where the speaker used agent based interaction models to explain why laissez faire capitalism actually would soon lead to money in the hands of few while all the rest would become pennyless. It might be a very simplified model, but it gives one insight into how complex unbridled systems evolve naturally. My guess (or insight) is that this phenomenon can be applied to why some temples are more popular and why some cricketers get porsches even while others struggle to make ends meet. Even as I explained all this to my mother, she gave me a look of surprise and said our ancestors made this observation ages back and hence the oft repeated "panam panathoda thaaan serum"(money will only marry money). I tell you, these old people are out to get me.

Imsai of anachronisms

Ok this is not a review of Imsai Arasan nor is this about Vadivelu's drunken antics. And neither is it about kalaignar TV (though I am gald to see Yuhi Sethu back in action).

Coming to the point, there are some very interesting things about Chimbudevan's Imsai, that as far as I can recall not many people seemed to have noticed. Now that is just another way of bragging that I noticed something in the movie. But hey what is a blog for if I am not allowed some self indulgence.

There are some very interesting anachronisms in the movie. The funniest being the final speech by the Ahimsai Arasan (ie the reformed Imsai Arasan), wherein he says "Maaveeran Alexanderpol, Samrat Ashokarpol.....Braveheart Mel Gibsonpol...." And then there is the Arasan's face morphed onto Brucelee's body. The best anachronism is not actually funny. but is a piece of smart work arising from conventional ignorance. It is basically Nasser's reaction to the Thambi Vadivelu's comment "maatram ondruthaaan marathuiruppathu" (Change is the only thing that does not change). Now this is a quote which is usually incorrectly attributed to Karl Marx, while it predates him by atleast a thousand years or more. But assuming that Marx made such a comment or was the first to use that phrase, Nasser's reaction to it is interesting. He gives a very surprised look and says, "...Ange thottu Inge thottu, athaiyum padithu vittaya.." ("Have you read that too..?"). The reference is to Marx and his works. But the story happens in the 1790's and not the in the 19th century. So Nasser does not refer to Marx by name.

For God's Sake........

Forget about listening to the way "Madrasis" pronounce it...Can't people even read properly from the Menu. For the millionth time....
It is NOT Dosa......It is Dosai....
It is NOT Vada......It is Vadai....
Just as it not Poora, but Poori....

I rest my case M'lud.

The most unjust legal system

I never realised how cruel the Indian legal system was. Two events then happened that changed my mind forever. I owe a lot to the TV channels for opening my eyes. Here were two men sentenced to jail. One for being in possession of illegal weapons like AK56(athu oru bayangaramana machine gun). And the other for killing a state protected endangered Chinkara and Black Buck. The former, on whom a 1.5 billion rupees industry depends upon, had to pay a hefty fine of Rs 25000. Poor Sanjay, can't imagine how he managed to save that large an amount from the paltry sum he gets for being the prime man in a 1.5 billion rupees industry. The media quite rightly kept harping on the billion rupees figure. After all in a capitalist democracy a person's worth depends on his/her wealth.

And Salman, poor fella was treacherously misled into thinking that shooting "voiceless" Black bucks was good sport. After all unlike the guys on the platform whom he drove over earlier, the Chinkaras and Black bucks wouldn't drag him to court. The bloody Chinkaras and Black bucks played foul. How was he to know that there were thinks in the world called endangered species, people like Belinda Wright, organisations like WPSI and laws against poaching. Poor Salman.

The perusu's of our land can go on and on about freedom fighters and kalapani and murky cells in Andaman. But can all those people's suffering compare with the sufferings (mental and physical) of these two men. How many times did Sanjay have to appear in court. Has anyone in India suffered as much as this man. Tell me what should poor Salman do...he is fined for driving over sleeping people, he is not allowed to kill black bucks and chinkaras, he is not allowed to call up on women and pain them. God forbid, he may be soon asked to start wearing shirts. Are we living in a fascist country? And think of the families. These two had sisters to look after. And worse still they had parents too. And as Sanjay pointed out, they are the lone "bread winners" of the family. Surely no one else in the country has so many issues to deal with.

It is yet again to the media's credit that it has been holding the spotlight on the inhuman sufferings of these entertainers, provoking some wonderful response from the chagrined public. One need just look at how the people of the nation have reacted to the state atrocities. I myself have been thinking of sending messages like these to people concerned. "Release Sanjay immediately. Is it Sanjay's fault that he possessed illegal weapons. If a poor man can flaunt a Bazooka on Screen, why can't he have a AK56 in his house. Throw the stupid communists out of the country?" "If Salmaan can't kill Chinkara Maan for fun...What the ***k maan?" What we need today are more such messages and letters, condemning such inhuman, soul wrecking injustice. We after all live in a civilised society.